


finding warmth in cold homes

by fiveyaaas



Series: under mistletoe [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Nightmares, Number Five | The Boy Gets A Hug, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28049910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: One day, Reginald had yelled at Five for this habit, and Five had realized there was another value to Vanya. Him being her friend pissed off Reginald. She was basically the perfect person.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: under mistletoe [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036878
Comments: 2
Kudos: 58
Collections: Harcest Ficmas 2020





	finding warmth in cold homes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blackat14](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackat14/gifts).



When Five had first started training with his powers, he spent much of his time consuming everything in sight. It was actually how he became friends with Vanya in the first place. She  _ hated  _ her oatmeal, and he was willing to eat most things. So, he’d offered her a deal- he’d protect her from the morons they lived with if she gave him her excess oatmeal. Pretty soon, it became her pushing over all types of food as silently as possible, which he scarfed it down, needing energy after exhausting himself from his spatial jumps. 

One day, Reginald had yelled at Five for this habit, and Five had realized there was another value to Vanya. Him being her friend pissed off Reginald. She was basically the perfect person. 

So, he started talking to her. 

At first, he got the idea that she didn’t actually think he wanted to be her friend and that he was playing some kind of prank on her, so he set to bringing her books and donuts, hoping that she would take this to mean he appreciated being her friend. Eventually, she warmed up to him, and he was thankful for it. 

Some time later, they started to confide in one another. Five had thought that most of them had been obsessed with pleasing Sir Reginald, but he later realized that Vanya had no such concerns (and many years later, he’d learn that was the case for some of the others too.) She admitted that, while she would enjoy his occasional indications of the capability of affection, that she hoped that one day he would actually be a real father to them, she didn’t think he ever actually would be proud of any of them. That she didn’t see the point sometimes in being his version of perfect when he’d just raise the bar immediately after.

_ ‘Plus,’  _ Vanya had added wryly.  _ ‘I’m already ordinary, so I’m one of his greatest disappointments by default.’  _

Five didn’t quite understand what the huge problem with ordinary even  _ was.  _ He liked his powers, but he didn’t see how they made him that much different than Vanya. That being said, he wouldn’t ever want her to be in any line of danger, considering there was no way for her to truly protect herself. And as their friendship had started from him promising to protect her (in exchange for oatmeal), he took much stock in her safety. 

It was actually why Five had let her start spending the occasional night in his bed. She had this awful recurring nightmare, where she’d been locked up in a dark, scary room with nobody else. Five didn’t really understand why she got the nightmare, but he nonetheless understood where his end of the bargain came in. He told her when she had a nightmare to come to his room and tell him, which ended up just meaning that  _ he  _ went to  _ her  _ room instead. She woke up in the night screaming, so it wasn’t like it wasn’t easy to tell. Especially when he stayed up late to wait until it usually happened. 

Five didn’t know exactly why he enjoyed feeling like Vanya needed his help, but he assumed it was just that it meant she had a reason to keep on being his friend forever. He didn’t know how to ask her if they could be friends forever, truly, so he comforted himself that, for the time being, it was enough that she needed him. 

But there was one day that he needed her in return. 

His training had become even more strenuous. This time he’d been forced to stay out in a blizzard, with nothing covering him besides the Academy uniform (not even the one seasoned for winter.) Five had been put in an odd, maze-like entrapment that he was to get out of on his own. He’d assumed it had been a test of strategy and intellect, but then he’d gotten the oddest sensation that the walls were closing in. It had gotten impossibly dark, and the equations he’d tried to formulate wouldn’t come to him.

Five had remembered the stories Vanya told him, of the dark room she’d been trapped in. She always told him that it felt like the dream lasted  _ months.  _

He couldn’t handle months. 

When he’d landed in front of the Academy, he collapsed. 

He woke up in his room, shivering and wondering why they hadn’t bothered with the infirmary. At least if he wasn’t in the infirmary, it meant that he didn’t have hypothermia. Grace would never put him back in his room if he had it, so he was thankful to not be in there. 

Still, he was  _ cold,  _ and, glancing down, he realized why. Maybe Reginald had been upset with his lack of success at getting back to the academy  _ conscious,  _ which sounded about right. Even when they performed one of his tasks perfectly it wasn’t enough. 

Well, that was bullshit. 

He blinked to Vanya’s room. She only had one, thin blanket, but he figured she would at least be warm. 

“Five?” Her voice was sleepy when she glanced up. Most people got jumpy when he blinked over to them without warning, but Vanya just sounded concerned. Likely a result from him coming to her this way many times in the past. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to sleep in your bed,” Five told her. “Because it is warmer than mine currently.”

She yawned, scooting over enough for him to slip under her covers. “You’re cold,” she complained.

“I’ll get warmer quicker if we sleep close together.”

“Like a hug?” Five didn’t know why she sounded so hopeful for a hug, and he worried that she didn’t get enough of those. Come to think of it, he didn’t know when he’d hugged her last. 

“Yeah, like a hug,” he said, cold enough to justify anything. When she hugged him tightly, smelling like vanilla after baking with Grace earlier, Five wrapped his arms around her in turn, trying to soak in her warmth. They pulled the blankets over themselves, and Five promised himself that he’d hug her more often. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! 💕💕💕


End file.
